... Hume argued that just as principles can be applied to the events of nature to enable us to understand it, similar principles can be applied to the human mind, and it can therefore be explained through empirical research (Blackburn, 1996, p179). He set about establishing this in his Treatise of Human Nature (1739) and went on to write An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) where he laid down the groundwork for his theory of impressions and ideas which he believed to explain the workings of the human mind. The theory of impressions and ideas is central to empiricism as it attempts to explain the human mind and thought processes through sensory perception and experience. Hume argues that the mind is made up of impressions and ideas. Impressions are the first initial experience of anything within the material world and ideas are the recollection of impressions. For example, if I trap ...

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